The present invention relates to the field of stringed musical instruments of the lute family such as guitars and more particularly it relates to an open string damper that can be readily engaged so as to damp the open strings and disengaged so as to leave the open strings undamped, directed particularly to bass guitars and stringed instruments played by a fret-tapping technique.
In playing a guitar with conventional techniques, i.e. plucking, strumming or picking with one hand while stopping strings at selected frets with the other hand to set the pitch. Some notes can be played with open strings. Any strings left open (not fret-stopped) may ring slightly even if not played, but usually the amplitude is negligibly small: at worst it could be easily controlled by the player.
However, open string ringing may become troublesome in some special instruments such as bass guitars and/or instruments designed to be played with unusual techniques such as tapping, e.g. the Chapman Stick (R), which is played with using an independent two-handed tapping technique with the player""s arms approaching the neck of the instrument perpendicularly from opposite sides. The higher pickup sensitivity utilized on instruments designed for this tapping technique generally require greater attention to the effects of open string ringing, particularly if there are more strings, e.g. ten versus six.
Known systems of fixed damping have been applied to open strings, however these have failed to provide any way to conveniently disengage the damping. Such disengagement may be required for special types of stringed instruments, e.g. those intended for both regular and tapping playing techniques.
In considering damping devices for stringed instruments it is important to make a distinction between muting devices directed to reducing loudness of all notes played, and dampers such as in the present invention where damping is directed only to open strings, and is typically applied between the nut and the first fret (or another one of the lower frets) consequently the damper has no effect on any notes played at fret position that is stopped by the player""s finger.
Muting devices acting simultaneously on all strings are typically located next to the bridge; such devices have been utilized on both acoustic and hard body electric guitars to xe2x80x9clower the soundxe2x80x9d i.e. the overall amplitude of string vibration. Particularly in acoustic guitars this is one of very the few ways available to lower the loudness and modify the tone. Typically such muting devices were provided with some form of rocker or lever arm by which they could be readily engaged and disengaged by a performing musician: examples are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,134,288 to Webster, 3,260,148 to Fender, 3,406,603, and 3,971,287 to Ito.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,165 to Rhodes for a FIXEDLY MOUNTED MUTE FOR STRINGED INSTRUMENTS discloses a mute that attaches selectively by clamp means to the strings between the bridge and the string holder or tailpiece.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,077 for DOBRO CAPO includes a resilient damper retainer member for damping the strings between the string support member and the nut.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,147 to Berardi for a GUITAR MUTE utilizes a tubular body of elasticized terrycloth that surrounds and attaches to the neck of the guitar outside the strings plus a felt pad under the strings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,811,704 for GUITAR PRACTICE DEVICE discloses a xe2x80x9cdummyxe2x80x9d guitar simulator practice device with sound damping material disposed between the strings and at least one of the two mounting blocks between which the strings are suspended.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,107 to Rickard for a STRINGED INSTRUMENT MUTE MECHANISM for electric string bass or other stringed instrument has a mute mechanism located near the instrument bridge having a base part and a rubber-faced carrier mounted on two pairs of pivoted link members so as to be movable in and out of engagement with the bottom side of the strings by a manually shiftable slide lever extending outwardly to one side of the strings for access by a performer playing the instrument
Muting devices acting on individual strings, generally for controlling loudness of acoustic guitars, made adjustable but not readily engaged and disengaged, are exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,956,962 to Fields and 3,427,916 for GUITAR AND ADJUSTABLE MUTE THEREFOR.
All of the foregoing references, intended for general use on guitars, are directed to muting applied to all notes played, including those played by fingered fret positions as well as those played on open strings.
In contradistinction the open string damper of the present invention, directed more particularly to bass guitars and stringed instruments played by fret-tapping technique, is located between the nut and the first fret (or another of the lower frets) where it provides disengagable damping, which when engaged, applies only to open strings. The damper has no effect on all notes played at fret-stopped positions, as in the tapping technique.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide, for a stringed instrument, a string damper that acts only on open strings (not on notes played at fingered fret positions), and that can be readily transitioned by the user between a fully engaged condition and a fully disengaged condition for different modes of playing.
It is an object to provide an embodiment wherein transition between the engaged condition and the disengaged condition is accomplished by movement of the damper in a substantially longitudinal direction along the neck of the instrument.
It is an object to provide an embodiment wherein transition between the engaged condition and the disengaged condition is accomplished by movement of the damping device in a substantially transverse direction across the neck of the instrument.
It is an object to provide an embodiment wherein transition of the damper between two stable conditions, i.e. fully engaged and fully disengaged, is made to be binary, with no intent to provide intermediate degrees of damping effect.
It is an object to provide an embodiment wherein transition of the damper between two stable limit conditions, i.e. fully engaged and fully disengaged, is to some extent proportional and dependant on displacement of a control element.
The abovementioned objects have been accomplished by the present invention of a damper for stringed musical instruments which is mounted in a channel running across the fretboard side of the neck of the instrument, between the first fret and the nut. An elongated rectangular metal shift bar is provided with a pad of damping material on its top side, facing the underside of the strings, is mounted in a manner that it can be shifted by the user between two stable locations: an engaged location wherein the damping material is urged upwardly against the strings and a disengaged location wherein the damping material is held down away from the strings.
In a first concept the channel has a bottom plane parallel to the fretboard and the shift bar, configured as with one or two recessed keyhole slots, is retained by a screw traversing each keyhole slot and threaded into the neck, and is urged upwardly by one or more compression coil springs. In the disengaged condition, the shift bar is held away from the strings by the underside of the screwhead(s) engaging the narrow region of the keyhole slot(s), In the engaged condition the shift bar is located such that the screwhead is in the large passageway opening of the keyhole slot(s), thus allowing the spring(s) to move the shift bar upwardly until it presses the damping material against the strings. To disengage the damper, the shift bar is grasped between a thumb and finger and pressed down away from the strings and then shifted along the direction of the slot(s) and released, so that, as described above, the shift bar is once again held clear of the strings by the screwhead(s) engaging the narrow region of the keyhole slot(s).
In a second concept utilizing an inclined plane implementation, both the bottom side the shift bar the floor of the transverse neck channel are configured with ramps to form an inclined plane interface, and the shift bar is configured with a pair of through-slots traversed by screws engaging the fretboard such that the damper can be deployed in either an engaged location and a disengaged location and can be moved back and forth between these locations by the user moving it along the ramps in the direction of the slots. In one version of the inclined plane system the damper travels longitudinally along the direction of the strings and in another version it travels laterally (across the strings).